New Delhi: Condemning the arrest of Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mevani, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the PM cannot ‘imprison truth by trying to crush dissent’.
Taking to his Twitter handle, Gandhi wrote, “Modi ji, you can try to crush dissent by abusing the state machinery. But you can never imprison the truth," using hashtag "#DaroMat" and "#SatyamevaJayate.
He also tagged a report saying that the Assam Police has taken Mevani into custody over his tweets on Prime Minister Modi.
Attacking the BJP over Mevani’s arrest by the Assam Police, Congress alleged that the PM was ‘scared’ and running ‘helter-skelter’ by such actions.
In a statement, Congress’s KC Venugopal said, “The unlawful and unconstitutional arrest of Jignesh Mevani at midnight by Assam Police is the latest proof of authoritarianism under BJP.”
“The 'dictator' is now running scared. The self-anointed 'shehanshah' of the country is 'deeply prejudiced' as also is running helter-skelter. The arrest of our friend, colleague, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani by police of Kokrajhar, Assam in Palanpur Gujarat, just for a single tweet asking the prime minster to appeal for communal amity and brotherhood in Gujarat reflects the deep-rooted prejudice, the scare, the fear among those sitting in the citadels of power in Delhi today,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, adding, “Does the prime minister and the BJP think that they can browbeat Mevani and every voice of this country irrespective of political affiliation, rising for communal amity for brotherhood, for cohesion, for walking hand in hand together for progress of India?”
READ | Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani Arrested Over Criminal Conspiracy Charges For A Tweet On PM Modi
The Congress spokesperson further said that the entire party and every conscious citizen is in support of Mevani.
"We will fight, we will not be afraid, we will not bow down. It has always been a call of Rahul Gandhi that we will fight against every arrogant power and will neither bow down nor hold back,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying.
He also said that although the BJP government has attacked the basic civilisation of this country, it will never be able to defeat it.
Notably, Congress MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani was arrested by Assam Police on Wednesday night, informed his team on social media. The police have filed a case against him under charges of criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between two communities.
Filing a case against the Vadgam MLA, the Assam police said that they arrested Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani over his tweets claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who "considers Godse as God, should appeal for peace and harmony against communal clashes in Gujarat, reported ANI.